Hipster Watch: Bigsound 2011

Hipsters love finding bands no one knows, yet are still good to listen to. Bigsound is Brisbane's answer to the South by Southwest festival. For a few days, the Valley is overrun by music everywhere you look. There's live music, there's workshops, there's speeches and it's basically everything you need to be in the music industry in one place. It sounds like the perfect place for a hipster to get the inside knowledge.

The best part for the average punters like you and me, apart from occasionally seeing a famous guest speaker, is the live music event. One ticket, for $55, gets you 80+ bands across multiple venues over 2 days. And the best part is, being a music convention, it's going to be the best of the up and coming bands in our country fighting for attention. No matter what, we, the punters, win. Check out the band list so far:

The Getaway Plan
Horrorshow
Calling All Cars
Emma Louise
Eagle & the Worm
Busby Marou
Trial Kennedy
Evil Eddie
Last Dinosaurs
Adalita
Big Scary
The Adults (feat. Shihad's Jon Toogood) (NZ)
The Sheepdogs (Canada)
Jonathan Boulet
DZ Deathrays
Bleeding Knees Club
Ball Park Music
The Medics
Avalanche City (NZ)
Stonefield
Jinja Safari
Owl Eyes
Boy In a Box
Damn Dogs (Feat. Chris & Mark from Jet)

Okay, granted, the Getaway Plan has been around as long as I've been going to gigs in Brisbane (if we forget when they broke up) but the rest is some of the best of Australia's new music. DZ Deathrays, The Medics, Calling All Cars, Jonathon Boulet, Ball Park Music and Trial Kennedy are getting me excited. I don't even know half of the bands there, but I'm sure it's going to be awesome.

If you want to find great new music before everyone else jumps on the bandwagon, head to this. Not to mention, it's great bloody value. It's happening September 7-9 at various venues around the Valley.

Big Sound and Valley Fiesta collide!

Those of us that live and gig in Brisbane truly understand how we can be seen as the live music capital of Australia. The music scene here is just so large and diverse, yet still as close as a family. Q Music run a yearly music conference called Big Sound as a celebration of this aspect of our wonderful city.

It's a coming together of the business, the arts and the music side of everything. As they say in the above trailer, it's our attempt to replicate a South by Southwest style festival and conference in the streets of Fortitude Valley, where there's so many live music venues in such a small area. This year there will be all sorts of managers, musicians, producers and more sharing their experience and knowledge, and helping out the local scene.

And the best part is, a shit tonne of concerts in association with it.

On the Wednesday and Thursday (8th and 9th of September) over 60 bands will be playing across 6 stages in the Valley, including 2 outdoor stages. Get comfortable, here's the list (I've bolded the notables to me):

CHILDREN COLLIDE
THE VASCO ERA
BOY & BEAR
THE GIN CLUB
THE JOHN STEEL SINGERS
PARADES (one of my new random favourite bands)
ERNEST ELLIS
THE HUNGRY KIDS OF HUNGARY
BRIDEZILLA
THE JEZABELS
BONJAH
THE WILSON PICKERS
LAST DINOSAURS
HALFWAY
THE CHECKS (NZ)
THE HOLIDAYS
STIFF GINS
GEORGIA FAIR
FIRE! SANTA ROSA FIRE!
PERRY KEYES
DUBMARINE
THE CAIROS
THE MELODICS
BALL PARK MUSIC
ARTISAN GUNS (NZ)
YOUNG REVELRY
RICHARD IN YOUR MIND
EAGLE & THE WORM
O YE DENVER BIRDS
THE NAKED AND FAMOUS (NZ)
THE OPTIMEN
PIKELET
THE MEDICS
GUINEAFOWL
MY FICTION
THE TRANSIENTS
BIG SCARY
DISCO NAP
THE DELTA RIGGS
DANIEL LEE KENDALL
26
DEEP SEA ARCADE
JINJA SAFARI
METALS
KYU
THE HONEY MONTH
LOVE CONNECTION
MELODRAMAS (UK)
KIMBRA
EDGE OF COLOUR
RUBY FROST (NZ)
CITY RIOTS
THE FOREIGN OBJECTS
KNIVES AT NOON (NZ)

And that's just the first announcement. Granted, it's a lot of indie, but it's mainly local. Just showing how good our music scene really is. Tickets are only $46 for the full two days, which is a steal for the amount of music you will get to see.

The second all this finishes, we get to start the music all over again! The weekend starting the 10th of September is when the Valley Fiesta starts. 3 days of music all throughout the Valley, most of it free. In years past there's been great bands, I remember in the first few weeks of living in Brisbane they had the Resin Dogs play the Sunday Afternoon. The mix of a few beers and free music in the mall made me actually happy to be living in this great city of ours. The line up is yet to be announced, but they generally manage to pull out some good bands, even a few international ones. A few years ago they even had the Silversun Pickups play for free.

Big Sound
Big Sound Tickets
Valley Fiesta